Prosecuting Domestic Abuse: Vulnerability Theory as Heuristic

The chapter looks at how vulnerability theory might offer a disruption to existing prosecutorial normative appraisals of domestic abuse cases so as to avoid, or at least reduce, detrimental outcomes for victims of domestic abuse. Victims of domestic abuse are likely to retract their support for a criminal prosecution, or fail to attend trial to give evidence, as compared to other criminal offences. Dependency and its derivatives become stigmatised because they are seen to fall short of the efficient execution of an autonomous life. Fineman’s theory of dependency can be criticised for failing to acknowledge that inevitable dependency is episodic and that ‘derivative dependency’ is performed by ‘choice’. Presumptions to arrest and to prosecute are commendable steps by the State’s criminal justice system in addressing its contribution towards diminishing the resilience of abused women.